Differences of English classes between Thailand and Japan Tuesday, 31, January, 2006
I have been in Thailand for 11 days, and taught students English as a teacher in a junior high and a high school. I went there with another 4 members. We had about 16 English classes. Students were so cute and so kind, and we enjoyed eating lunch, playing vollyball, and of course, studying English. Specifically, what I was glad was that I could see students smiles in our classes. It was very difficult to tell all things in English. Because both of students and us are English learners. But, I think that all experiences will be useful for me! I appriciate all teachers in Thaiand and my professors who adviced many many things.
I want to compare English classes of junior high schools between Thailand and Japan.
(1)About Engish classes that we had in Thailand.
We taught them Japanese cultures, Japanese traditional toys and 4 seasons. We decided key sentenses "Which seasons do you like?" or "Do you like ~?" and after we explained seasons and toys, we exercised sentenses. We used the former in classes which we needed to use easy English, and the latter was used for students who can understand easily.
We used pair works and lines to exercise key sentenses. And if they seemed not to understand the sentenses, we showed examples, which we asked these questions each other and asked students. There were some shy students, but it was so useful to show examples. And also we played a game "Seasons basket" like a "Fruits basket". We changed words of fruits to seasons.
And in another classes, what we taught was business telephone English. The reason is that they may use in the future. We made two groups, a clerk group and a customer group, and then played one or two times and changed a role. Next to pare works, some students identified with a clerk and a customer with using a real sell phone and a desk. I thought a role playing with using real things are very fun for students and important to study.
(2)About English classes in Japan ( when I was a junior high school student)
What I remember well about English classes is that learning English is learning words. In text books, there are always new words written in another space than storys. And I had to remember new words' meaning and spellings. And then I learned key grammers and exercised with pairs and with using papers to exercise. I liked playing games and singing English songs, "Let it be." or "Country road".
(3)Differences between Thailand and Japan
I had been in only 11 days and have only 16 classes. So I cannot say with assurance. But I found some differences.
What most I want to say is that it is a difference how to learn English. In Thailand, first, they start oral English, not new words and no grammars. When I saw some English activities to teach students how to speech, teachers taught them sentenses which students need to speech. And students repeated sentenses and tried to remember.And if there were some words which they didn't understand and couldn't remember, a teacher taught them meanings in Thai. In Japan, there is always grammars. I think that many students don't like that. And maybe students in Thai, students don't write wors or sentenses again and again to remember . They did not use pencils but their mouths.
And another difference is the shape of classes. I think it is a big difference. In Japan, the distance from a teacher to students who are sitting a last line is so far. Teachers have to speak the big voice and repeat mnay times, but in Thailand it is nearer than Japan. So we could see all students easily. If teachers want to play game and there are distanse to students, classes may not go smoothly. Students may feel bored. I thought it is important that students can listen what teachers say.
For 11 days, everyday are learning. I learned in school, from culture, from people.
I think that students in Thailand are interested in learning about Japan, because it is difficult for them to go to abroad. For them it may be more difficult than Japanese.
I think that it is certain that Japanese students have interests to foreign countries more or less. So I knew that learning English is not only learning new words and grammars but also knowing foreign countries and there cultures and so on, again.
